Good and Evil

[Rían]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
It is true that the punishment may be handed out in different degrees depending on sanity and insanity, but if a insane man commits a horrific crime, and a sane man commits an equally horrific crime, is not the act of both crimes equally as evil? The punishment may differ and vary, but the evil is the same.

But you're not looking at the whole picture - yes, the evil done to the victim is exactly the same, but there is a difference of evil as far as the perpetrator and others involved - in one case (insanity), there is no evil intent because of the lack of clear thinking; in the other (sanity), there IS evil intent, which does damage to the person who considers and chooses to act on the evil thought. (Sorry, I"m not wording this too well, I have an 'evil' headache!)

Also, there is less evil done to the other people involved (family, etc) and even those who hear of the crime, IMO, if there is not evil intent - we as moral humans recognize and are properly revolted by evil intentions and acts, and recognize that there is less evil when an evil act is unintentional or of less intent (due to less mental capability, etc.)